Cafe Review: Kipferl in Smithfields

I love our recent Antipodean coffee invasion but sometimes you don't want a flat white. Sometimes you want fastidious, anal and Habsburg.

The Viennese coffee culture has a long history and because of that it is a refined process. Things are done just so, each time. Kipferl is its best manifestation in London. When Kipferl first opened (I think in 2002ish) it was one of the few places standing against Starbucks and the other craptastic chain upstarts in offering proper coffee in London.

Obviously there is currently a (re)birth in good coffee in London (did it ever used to exist?). Evidence of this is found in Dose Espresso, a particularly good flat white coffee shop which opened last year right next to Kipferl (review to follow). Still sometimes you want to revert back to the classics.

We popped back there this Saturday. It was just as it always is, full of people taking their time over coffee, enjoying the paper and tucking into Austrian delicacies (which range from frankfurter soup to pastries). Being a wise person I ordered just right, a macchiato (ok should traditionally be an espresso) and a kipferl (an almond pastry). As you can see from the picture the ritual of an espresso gives you:

Restaurant Review: Byron Hamburgers and the BIG D in Gloucester Road

I've been to Byron before.  Indeed you've probably been there before.  My earlier review is here but in summary my thoughts at the time were good burger, great sides. 

It is not, and will not ever be a great burger place as it doesn't have the set up to be.  It is a franchise, it has multiple locations, it has multiple chefs.  That said, the quality is consistently high and it is streets ahead of the other burger chains in London.  If there was one located a bit further East than Wardour Street I would be a lunchtime regular.

Then they introduced the Big D.  This was their attempt to muscle in on Hawksmoor (reviews here and here) and try and wrestle away the title of "best burger in London".

Restaurant Review: Brixton Village and Take 2wo's Caribbean Restaurant in #BrixVill (Granville Arcade)

There is a particular form of guilt that comes from being a liberally educated white middle class male who has had all the advantages that life can throw at him, erm, thrown at him. For instance, when people start talking about getting one of Brixton's historic markets (Granville Arcade), renaming it Brixton Village, giving it a twitter hashcode and attempting to gentrify the hell out of it I get nervous.

Also having grown up near Brixton (well Dulwich) I have a nostalgic affection for the shitness of Brixton and its markets. They are different, they are shabby, they smell but they are local and are defiantly not Dulwich or Clapham. Also great produce.

Cafe Review: The Espresso Room in Bloomsbury

Well you know you are in the right kind of place when you wander in and Gwilym Davies is coffee geeking about blenders with the barista behind the counter.

The Espresso Room is very small and not located anywhere near my flat.  It is also annoying in that it is shut on the weekends so it is a struggle for me to get to it.  This is a shame as it is really rather good. Its products are shipped in from Bea's of Bloomsbury and the coffee grind is Square Mile. Gwilym's fellow coffee geek who was running the shop when I went there served me up with an absolute perfection of a flat white.  Given that on a weekly basis I normally go to Taylor Street, Nude Espresso, Flat White, Gwilym's cart on Columbia road and the coffee cart (Pitch 42) on Whitecross Street this is a true and earnest recommendation.

You can also see from the picture my bike just outside so I could sprint there on a lunchbreak. Now that is coffee dedication.

Price - £2ish

Cafe Review: Nude Espresso

Nude Espresso is my favourite place to try and add additional paunch near my work. Whilst they are meant to be built around the glory of coffee their real strength lies elsewhere, in baking. Their snacks are quite frankly outrageously good.

One of my favourite midweeks trips to try and wipe the horror of work frommy face is to go there and grab a flat white and a chocolate and banana muffin.  The muffins are absolutely spot on.  Baked to perfection with gooey chocolate inside and banana to cut across and complement it. Then there are the cookies. Again, baked to half gooey perfection inside but with a crisp outer.  Their countertop goes on and on with tempting goods.

As for the coffee. It's good.  We aren't talking Starbucks here.  We are talking expensive, slow and precision made flat whites. Nude Espresso also does something quite special as they have their own blend of coffee (East) which you can buy vacuum packed in store.  From the coffees I have had there it is enjoyable (though I still prefer Square Mile).

Restaurant Review: Saltoun Supper Club in Brixton

I think one word sums up Saltoun Supper Club (SSC), fascinating. From the food to the decor, it is all fascinating.

Now this is not meant to a slight on the food at all (for the simple reason that the food is rather good) but there is an element of theatrics to the whole experience which makes SSC special.  The whole supper club/ underground restaurant "scene" has stimulated many emotions in me but the general one has been a slight feeling of "is that it?".  There have been notable exceptions (L&F, Nuno Mendes and Christmas at Number 42) but in general it has been a slightly underwhelming experience eating in people's living rooms over the past year.  I don't go to supper clubs to simply have an emulation of a meal in a restaurant (and sometimes a bad one), I think there has to be something unique about it. Be it experimental food, bonhomie or just curiosity. SSC takes this and runs with it.here) has a far fuller and beautiful glimpse of the unique surroundings.

Arno and his assistant staged the whole process brilliantly. You walk up a flight of stairs and the flat unfolds around you. Interesting, quirky and unique are dotted everywhere.  The living room is like the top floor of the Welcome Collection in Euston and full of little curiosities. Between each course you are offered the chance to relax upstairs in a study similarly decorated and evocative.

Restaurant Review: Galvin Cafe de Luxe with a jealous glimpse of Galvin La Chapelle in Spitalfields

Have you ever gone to a restaurant and asked for the "menu" and just been given the menu? I used to go to Galvin Bistro de Luxe a fair bit and they have always had a "menu". Having read all the fuss about Galvin La Chapelle I thought that whilst I couldn't afford to go to La Chapelle in a January I could give its smaller and cheaper sibling - Galvin Cafe de Luxe - a go. I just assumed they had a "menu".

Well, I was wrong. I sat there. I asked. I was told no. If I had done a little bit of research I would have realised that I could have just gone to La Chapelle as they do have a menu at lunchtimes. £24.50 for three courses. We ended up spending that on food on two courses in the Cafe. Also, as I have been comparing menus on Galvin's website I notice that the pudding I had, the rhum baba with crème Chantilly, is three pounds more expensive in the La Chapelle than the Cafe. Is there any difference between them? Do you get three pounds more chefly inspiration baked into it?

Cafe Review: Scooterworks Cafe in Lower Marsh Waterloo

It feels a little strange when the shop you used to get your Vespa serviced in becomes a cafe. Scooterworks always used to do a sideline in an espresso whilst you waited but on my revisit there a couple of weeks ago it had dumped the bikes and made the sideline the real show.

The interior is all vintage Italian (coffee machines and bikes) and definitely an interesting place to relax.

Restaurant Review: Regency Cafe in Pimlico

I got reviewing nerves after my last posting.  Having been to Cha Cha Moon and had a good pitstop lunch (review here) it became apparent that some people had had very different experiences there.  Still I was sure I enjoyed my meal there wasn't I?

So, next posting I thought I will go to what I know.  I will go to a London boy's home turf.  I will do traditional British cuisine.  So what is that?  A fry up cooked by Italians in Pimlico of course.

Regency Cafe in Pimlico.  If you like a good fry up and read websites like classiccafes you will already know about this place.  Ever since I was a kid I used to go to cafes (definitely no accent on the e) with my father.  I remember when he first took me to E Pellicci Bethnal Green Road about twenty years ago I loved everything about it.  I loved the dirty East End surroundings, I loved the copies of the Sun and the Mirror being slowly ingested, I loved the crapness, the unpretension of the food.

Day 16: Leftover Beef Stew with Mash

I used to think leftovers were pretty lousy. This challenge has forced me to learn to love them. I would like to post something new everyday, but with a challenge like this the reality is that you end up eating a lot of the same thing. So far, I've made my garlic chili noodles three times. We've had pizza twice. We spent the past weekend eating at home which was enjoyable, but as expected, the headlining spaghetti on Friday made an encore appearance on Saturday. Even as I type this, the stew I made Sunday is simmering away -again.

The upside to this is that I've managed to stick to my budget. Since I am American and completely obsessed with stats, let's take a look at the numbers:

Week 1: £0
Week 2: £10
Week 3: £1.97 (so far)

Cafe Review: Taste of Bitter Love in Hackney

I am currently stuck at work. I am just sitting here as a lawyer in America ruins my evening. However, it does give me chance to review something small whilst I am waiting. A little bitesized review. Luckily I went to Taste of Bitter Love this weekend.

TOBL has a unique selling point. You probably won't be able to get in. You definitely won't be able to sit down. It is very small. And it is normally busy. People mingle in and out of it and it is a place where once nestled in people want to stay. It has a kitschy vintage vibe inside with plenty to keep the eye company.

Restaurant Review: Cha Cha Moon in Soho

Alan Yau gets me all excited.  I have managed to visit each of his restaurants (including his short lived Italian on Baker Street many moons ago) and have always loved the Asian cuisine and aesthetic sensibility he brings to each effort.  To this day Yauatcha and Hakkasan remain two of my favourite destinations to eat (though I am less that wowed by Busabi Eathai and Wagamama is definitely on its last cultural legs).

When word came in 2008 that he was doing a Chinese noodle house in Soho I was straight there for his opening week.  The fact that all the dishes were half price didn't hurt either. However, I only returned once thereafter and has not been lured back since.  The reason for this was simple, even at half price it wasn't that great.  This even seemed to be something Alan Yau recognised as he has obviously continued fiddling and adjusting and his soft opening in 2008 continued for several months.

Day 13: Big Girl Meatballs vs. The Little Girl Kind

With this challenge, it's nice to know I can be resourceful when I have to be, but I'm still haunted by thoughts of foie gras and Kumamoto oysters. A friend recently asked for my veal meatballs recipe. After typing it up, I could think of nothing else I wanted more. I can dream of the good old days; however, with my £10 weekly budget, I had to create a slimmed down version. What I came up with sort of reminds me of what you make when you first learn to cook, but it's still just as tasty as a grown up dish. Pick the Big Girl version if you've got the whole day to pretend you're an Italian granny. Pick the Little Girl one (pictured) for those nights when you can't be arsed.

Cafe Review: Foxcroft and Ginger in Berwick Street

I am not sure what Foxcroft and Ginger's unique selling point is but I like it.

I walked in there thinking so what?

I mean it is beautiful in a warehouse distressed kind of way. They have a selection of cakes and sweet stuff to tempt you laid out on a flat worktop just waiting to be coughed on. They serve flat whites and good coffee (Monmouth). But doesn't every Antipodean coffee shop in London do just that?

Day 11: Spicy Asian Style Ribs with Brussel Sprout Tops

I'm lucky to live with two people who love their food, and I've noticed that I'm developing a unique symbiotic relationship of the culinary variety. I have become the little fish that swims under the belly of the big fish. The rat who waits in the darkness to scavenge the spoils of the hunter.

I am also lucky to have a flatmate who has a penchant for overbuying. Gideon spent last Sunday making jar after jar of pate. We came home to pork products of every variety strewn across the counter. When all was said and done, there was plenty of pork surplus. So who do you think volunteered to take care of the rest?

Day 11: Lemon and Pine Nut Cake

I rarely use recipes when I cook. Baking, however, is a completely different story. Since I'm a very impatient person and somewhat of a control freak, I used to find the whole process very stressful. I wanted instant gratification, and I wanted to be able to correct mistakes as I went. Baking gave me neither option.

Cafe Review: Market Coffee House in Spitalfields

My London food summary of last year would be two things: (i) burritos and (ii) coffee shops.  I thought this review of the Market Coffee House in Spitalfields might be a rare glimpse of the non Australian London coffee scene but on a closer examination of http://www.marketcoffeehouse.com/ I noticed that one of the owners is Australian.  Well damn him but it is fitting.  Until the Australians came you struggled to get a good cup of coffee in London but now, and especially over the past year, you are submerged in the good stuff.

Day 9: So long, Waitrose.

Despite developing a case of mild food anxiety, I made it through the first week of my challenge. I don't know if some of you would constitute this as cheating, but we survived by blagging a few dinners from our flatmate, Gideon. We then carried ourselves through the weekend by receiving invitations to friends' tables -both Saturday and Sunday evening. Realising that I might not be so lucky this coming week, I decided it was finally time to open my wallet (that everyone thinks is a pencil case) and pull out some cash.

When I was a kid, shopping for groceries was a carefully planned event. My mom would troll the aisles with her list in hand, methodically ticking off each item and carefully noting its price. Towards the end, we'd always stop in a deserted aisle so she could check through her coupon book and calculate the total. Before we'd head to the checkout, I was allowed to pick out a package of Entenmmen's donuts which we'd later eat while watching episodes of Dallas. The donut ritual went by the way side, but one thing has always remained the same. My mom is still a shrewd shopper. She hunts down every deal, every bargain to be had. She inherited this from my grandmother who will walk 30 miles in a snowstorm just to buy milk that's selling for $1.00 a gallon. Maybe I was distracted by the donuts, since I've been unsuccessful in carrying this torch. But as I set out on my evening journey for supermarket deals, I couldn't help but feel a bit inspired.

Restaurant Review: Que Viet on Kingsland Road

On Sunday I had the good luck to be invited round to Leluu and Fernandez's house to have some pho with a bunch of other London food bloggers (or eaters) who I admire. Unsurprisingly the conversation turned to asking where Leluu herself would choose to eat Vietnamese food in London and the answer, with some caveats, was nowhere really... We then all had a discussion and Luiz (the London Foodie - link to the right) and I both picked Song Que as probably being the best of Vietnamese restaurants on Kingsland Road. This was despite having the fact that I had been to Que Viet the week before to have, what my friend assured me would be, "the best Vietnamese on Kingsland Road".

Well now my roundabout introduction to the review is over... I am going to do something I don't usually do and elevate service and place it front and centre. The reason I don't really care about service is you know what you get into bed with. You go to a fancy French restaurant with nice tablecloths and, well, they better be fawning and pull your chair out and fold your napkin. If you go to a little hovel way out East and step into a room full of smoke and can bring your own, well, who cares if you are closeted and stroked? Politeness helps, English menus are beneficial but I am there to suffer for the sake of food.

 
Que Viet aspires to be something more than a Kingsland Road Viet cafe. I mean, they do wine (like Cay Tre) and have a fairly wide array of dishes. I even remember handtowels which means service is edging in to be part of the equation. So when at the end of the meal I mentioned to the waiter that they had forgotten to serve me my main course (a pho) but had left it on the bill and the waiter went "I know" I was unimpressed. I didn't actually mind not receiving my main as we had over ordered and you come to tolerate a slight sloppiness in more local restaurants but to cynically leave it on the bill in the hope that I would pay; shoddy.

Restaurant Review: Hawksmoor in Spitalfields - a corporate revisit

Hawksmoor is my couple of times a month punchy burger lunch place. Quite frankly I am no longer rich or thin enough to be able to eat there properly in the evenings and run the full gambit of steak and cocktails.

However... in my attempts to be sympathetic to Jen's January food challenge and out of empathy to her lunch of 2 old apples and some peanut butter I thought I would ensure that at least one of us gets a proper meal by me going to Hawksmoor. The thing was, I wasn't paying and that changes things.

Day 4: Redemption with Garlic Noodles, Chilis, and Shaved Brussel Sprouts

After the last debacle, I felt like I was navigating through the depths of culinary hell. I convinced myself I was a terrible cook. What was worse, my challenge prevented me from using Waitrose as therapy as I am restricted to a £10 weekly budget.

I came home from work and entered the kitchen with a lump in my throat. Perhaps I could just eat more Christmas cookies for dinner? Tom offered to cook which would mean I could potentially cheat my way out of another night, but then he called, said he was stuck at the office, and to just start without him.

My first instinct was to just go for the cookies, but instead I decided to pull up my big girl pants and give it another go. There was less pressure this time since the only person I needed to please was myself. But if I failed again, I would give up and eat Pot Noodle for the rest of the month.

Day 2: Fuck This Soup

Dear God. What have I done? It's only Day 3, and last night I was already contemplating surrender. There is nothing that brings a cook to her knees faster than a disaster meal. Last night's, was a complete FAIL.

It was the first night of my challenge. The first night to create a meal for two using only the ingredients in the house. Walking home from the office, I strode past Waitrose with confidence. My mind ran through possible recipes. I was tired, but sure I would succeed.

Restaurant Review: Cream Tea at Palm Court in the Langham Hotel

Everyone has an ambition of what they want to achieve in the new year. Mine is simple, I don't want to get fat. This is particularly hard given my love of food and Jen's introduction to me of the artery clogging joy of cream tea.  It is because of Jen's love of clotted cream that we trawled the high tea establishments of London last year and eventually came to the Langham.

Put simply, Palm Court at the Langham is the best cream tea you can get in London. The proof of this is that Palm Court is where we choose to spend those initial moments of pain when we woke up on 2 January 2010 to quiet our hangovers and still our stomachs. There is also something historically apt about this as it is apparently where high tea began some 140 years ago.

January: Jen learns to spend less than £1,000 a day in Waitrose

People would never label me as “frugal” or “modest”. I overindulge in almost every aspect of life, and until recently, I lived by the Nike catch phrase, “Just Do It” with great enthusiasm. For people like me, the credit crunch has not been kind. It did finally get me last year. And it took me kicking and screaming.

Of course I’ve jumped on the resolution band wagon and reevaluated my expenses for 2010. It looks like I will need to find a way to embrace phrases such as “packing my lunch”, “buying reduced” and “drinking water”. While I’d rather stick my head in an oven, these actions, however foreign to me, must be met. I’ve therefore decided to stay positive about my financial constraints and do what any good reality TV producer would do. I’ve turned this into a challenge.

For the month of January, I will feed the two of us using only what already exists in the freezer, fridge, or pantry. I’ve also allowed myself a weekly stipend of £10 for fresh meat and veg (not easy considering we are Waitrose junkies). I look at this, as an opportunity not only to be creative, but to also be less wasteful as I am prone to regularly throwing out unopened bags of rotten greens. Hopefully at the end of this, I will still have a few p in my pocket, and if I’m lucky, a few new habits.

Day 1: I made pizza dough last night, so supper is not even close to scary. Next week, we’ll see.

Restaurant Review: Fox and Anchor in Smithfields

When I was a little kid my dad used to take me up to Smithfields for a proper fry up.  We would go to The Cock under Smithfields market and also to the Fox.  Then the Fox shut down.  Its wooded backrooms, silver flasks and beautiful tiles were to be lost forever and then... Malmaison jumped in, saw a business opportunity and restored it.  It now serves as a mini hotel and a pub food place.

Just after it first re-opened several years ago a bunch of us went there and were heartily impressed at the chunky robust food and, most of all, the Irish bartenders.  There is something that thoroughly works about Irish bartenders when you really want to get your drink on.  As much as I love their Australian or East European replacements they don't quite have the required garrulous charm.

The Fox has thrived since its restoration and remains an oft favoured spot of mine.  It is especially useful for showing guests a "traditional" English (theme) pub where you get served your ales in silver flagoons and you can get the food you expect.

We took our Los Angeles visitor there for a lunch over the rain sodden Christmas period and it gave me a chance to have a re-think about the place.  The decor is as was when it reopened; magnificent and cocooning with wood and leather and silver and a tight long bar. On a busy night it is the perfect place to get gently knocked to and fro whilst people go to the loo and you concentrate on your drinking. Atmosphere guaranteed.

Restaurant Review: the Water House (boo) and the Modern Pantry (yea)

As many people are probably still dealing with the hangovers and consequences of New Year's eve I thought the sensible thing to do would be to post a review of a brunch recovery place. For me, there has been one standout venue for brunch over the past year and that is the Modern Pantry in Clerkenwell.

In the same way that a pantomime has its hero, this review has its villian; the Water House. In every way the Modern Pantry excels the Water House with seemingly effortless negligence turns those positives upside down and gives you a sloppy debacle of a meal. I'll get to the gory details below.

To begin with the great before we get to hiss at the Water House.... the Modern Pantry is situated in a grade two listed Georgian building. That is enough to get the architectural juices flowing. However, it has been elevated into something more through a sensitive update by Jump Studios and the liberal use of silver cutlery and accessories. It is quite frankly beautiful. Light streams through the massive Georgian windows and you feel as though you are in a contemporary version of a Jane Austin novel (but I would avoid sitting by the door on a cold day).

I first went to the Modern Pantry for supper in the first quarter of the year. It was flat out empty on a Thursday night. We slightly panicked but believed in the reviews and sat down and waited. It did not disappoint. Elegant and precise fusion food trickled out. Australian influenced fusion food surprisingly remains rare in this country and it is even harder to find it done well (I was unimpressed by the other obvious contender - Providores and Tapa Rooms - when I went a couple of years ago and the Sugar Club is long gone).